


Lovely

by Kaerith



Series: Lovely Leskel [1]
Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Genre: Flirting, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23402371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaerith/pseuds/Kaerith
Summary: Geralt has gathered allies at Kaer Morhen and are preparing to face the Wild Hunt. It seems like Letho is a problem. A big problem. Lovely.(Takes place during TW3, but that plot is not important.)
Relationships: Eskel/Letho z Gulety | Letho of Gulet
Series: Lovely Leskel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689823
Comments: 19
Kudos: 97





	Lovely

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this prompt: " **Letho/Eskel, Awkward crush, overprotective brothers** ...big bad Letho of Gulet, the kingslayer, badass extrodinaire, is hopelessly in love with Eskel. Everyone knows, but Eskel, they think it's cute. I also want for Geralt and Lambert to be very much against this. They don't think it's cute," though I think I really failed at the "awkward crush" part-- turns out I like imagining him to be smooth af when he is brave enough to act, but slow to try because he's expecting to be hurt. Is that awkward?

Geralt was starting to regret inviting Letho to Kaer Morhen. The man would be an asset in the fight, but his presence disturbed everyone else in the ruined keep. His reputation was enough to alienate the people he had never met, and his personality had kept everyone else leery and at a distance. Geralt had been happy to have him here as an ally until he noticed Letho's strange behavior. 

Even with the (weird) abundance of women at the castle, Letho skulked about and watched one particular man with an intent gaze. 

"Do you have a problem?" Lambert confronted him, his arms crossed. He had cornered Letho by a wall the giant man had been fortifying. Eskel had just gone into the building for an errand, and Lambert and Geralt were the only others in the courtyard. 

"I have many problems. Which one are you asking about?" Letho replied calmly. 

Lambert pressed the issue. "Has Eskel ever done anything to you?" 

Letho kept his arms at his sides. "Nope. Never really talked to the guy before. What makes you think he's my problem?" 

Lambert was many things-- hot-tempered, gifted with swordwork, loyal to his friends-- but he was not quick-witted. He hesitated as he scrambled to think of an answer. "Well, he is NOT your problem, so leave him alone!" 

Geralt was impressed with the Viper's ability to suppress his amusement. "Haven't said a word to him." 

"Just stop staring at him!" Lambert said, pointing a finger a good distance from Letho's face. "If you try anything you won't be just taking on him. Me and Geralt and Vesemir will cut you down like a sick wyvern."

Letho shrugged. "Good to know. Can I go back to work?" 

"Y-yes! You may!" Lambert stuttered, mentally off-balance and wondering how he had lost the upper hand of the conversation. He scowled at Letho before spinning around and marching off. 

Letho and Geralt shared a glance. Geralt had no love for the man, but he did have to give him credit for being such an effective foil for Lambert's fury. 

* * *

Vesemir, in his patience and often self-proclaimed wisdom, approached Geralt about the issue instead of Letho himself. 

"That Viper," he said quietly, as he came to stand next to Geralt to watch Eskel, Letho, Hjalmar, and Ves work together to lift a stone block into the keep's crumbling wall. "What's his interest in Eskel?" 

"I think he wants to bed him," Geralt said. 

"Hmm," the old Witcher murmured. "Well, that boy can take care of himself. But since you brought him here, he's your responsibility if things get out of hand." 

"I don't think Letho will have time to get very far," Geralt replied. "But your opinion is noted." 

* * *

Triss also seemed to agree with Geralt's assessment on the nature of Letho's fixation. "That man," she said, plonking down a mug of ale and taking a seat next to Geralt. 

"Letho has that effect on people," Geralt agreed. He had witnessed the argument between Letho and Triss that had just happened on the other side of the great hall. 

"He is a brute! I do not want to get involved, but I have half a mind to warn Eskel." 

"Have they even had a conversation?" 

Triss shook her head. "Not to my knowledge. Of course, I have been locked up inside, but you Witchers gossip like handmaidens." 

"Well, that's unflattering," Geralt said. 

"To handmaidens," Triss added. 

* * *

Geralt approached Roche. "I know you do not like having him here. I want to thank you again for your help." 

Vernon shook his head. "I know you Witchers live longer, and thus have a different perspective on politics, but you do understand loyalty. He assassinated my king. I do not wish to discuss that vile beast any further." 

"I understand." Geralt moved to walk away. 

"...Though," Roche added, "I would have you warn your friend Eskel that the monster seems to have an interest in him." 

* * *

Keira was the only one who seemed to tolerate or even like Letho. 

"He has the image of a beast, but his manners are more in line of a wary hound. The kind of abused mutt who was run out of the house but is begging to be let back in." 

"Why do you say that?" Geralt asked, utterly lost. 

"I've talked to him. His reputation as the Kingslayer is all anyone knows. He had no interest in politics; the man took the only option he had to fulfill his deepest desire to rebuild his home. Not all of you Witchers have an inborn inclination to wandering. That man longs for a home and family. It's no wonder he has a grudge against the world as, in his view, the world has no interest in letting him get his wish. Once the School of the Viper was attacked and its residents slaughtered, he was cast adrift in the worst kind of way." 

"Does he think that seducing Eskel will mean he would have a home here?" 

Keira gave him one of her looks that showed Geralt how unimpressed she was with his intelligence. "Not all of you Witchers are as shallow as Lambert. You may all have your strengths, but you seem to ignore any talents for things that aren't... butchering vampires and giant bugs. I will tell you that with Letho still waters run deep." 

Geralt still didn't understand. "Huh?" 

She stood up, at the end of her patience. "If you just think the man is a slavering sex maniac fixated on your friend, then maybe you should use your skills to sneak a look into Letho's belongings! And for the gods' sake, cultivate some discretion and tact if you are unable to at least be intelligent!" 

* * *

Geralt assigned Lambert to keep Letho occupied. His fellow Witcher scoffed at the mission, but Geralt figured he would at least intervene if Letho tried to come back to the corner of the yard where he had set up camp. 

Aside from the Viper's spare clothes, the man carried the usual Witcher gear of potions, oils, and bombs as well as standard provisions. His few mementos were inscrutable: some rocks, feathers, and other junk. He carried with him one book, however, an old tome smudged and ragged with use. _Two Dancing Serpents_ , an old story of two men conscripted to serve together who had a life-long relationship fraught with the heartbreak of forced separations as their career and other responsibilities tore them apart. Geralt had never read it. It was the kind of old book that no one had read but which had the reputation of an elaborately explicit writing style that bards often mocked. Geralt started to read the page that the book naturally opened to and found the overwrought description of a glance being shared across a crowded room between the two lovers to be entirely too romantic for his tastes. 

Keira had said "still waters run deep," did she mean that Letho was a romantic who had set his heart on Eskel? 

Geralt would have honestly preferred to continue thinking of Letho as plotting to manipulate Eskel for some self-serving benefit. 

* * *

"So what do you think of Kaer Morhen?" Geralt asked Letho during a break late in the day. 

Letho made a snort as he ripped a bit of jerky off with his teeth. "That's not your real question, Wolf. I assume that you were the one who was snooping in my gear?" He began to chew his snack. 

Geralt tried to defend himself. "I did not know what your... expectations are with Eskel." 

Letho leisurely waited to answer until he had swallowed. "No expectations. Had come across some stories of him. Seems like someone with a brain, unlike the rest of you wolves. I promise that I am not going to approach him with any propositions or try to rape him in his sleep." 

Letho had a talent for intuiting your worst thoughts and dismissing them in a dryly humorous tone that made you seem like an absolute idiot for believing you thought you could think in the first place. It's what made one know he was intelligent but also a complete asshole. Geralt had admired the trick when Letho had turned it against Lambert, but it wasn't funny at all when you were the victim. 

Geralt ruminated over that for a bit, letting the Viper eat without any other interruptions. Letho always seemed to know anyone's assumptions, particularly about him. If Geralt was smart enough to know what his actual friends and acquaintances thought of him, he might end up being a loner like Letho. The man looked like a brute, though his actions only proved his capability for violence and cruelty when he had a mission or was acting in self-defense. 

If Letho hadn't been a Witcher, what would he have grown up to be? He was too intelligent to settle for a life of farming. Would he have been an academic? Was his capacity for cruelty only a product of his Witcher training and mutations? 

Suddenly and unexpectedly Geralt had a more sympathetic view of the man. "Ask Eskel about his encounter with a succubus, if you get the chance," he said as he got up to leave. That might give Letho and opening to actually talk with Eskel. 

* * *

Lambert warned Eskel of Letho. "He keeps staring at you. Did you do something?" 

Roche and Ves were blatant that having to ally unwittingly with the Kingslayer would sever their relationship with Geralt. 

The blond witch had mentioned that Letho was a hound begging for scraps. "More like a bear ready to kill you over a carcass," Triss had corrected her. 

Eskel had eyes and a brain. He knew the giant was watching him. He knew the flowers and that bottle of red wine had been gifts left in strategic places where Eskel would be the first to find them and kept the giver's anonymity. But given the sharpness of the gaze, Letho also knew that Eskel wouldn't think them anonymous. 

"Got a pack of nekkers encroaching on the castle," he said to Letho before most of the others were awake and about. "Wanna give me a hand?" 

They ambled toward the lake on foot. "This what you had in mind for a first date?" Eskel asked. 

Letho barked a laugh. "Y'know, this is our life. Not like I'm the type to court a pretty girl in a tavern." 

"So who do you court and how?" 

The giant considered his answer. "I don't. You know how it is, everyone you know gets killed and the world hates you." 

Eskel sighed. "I get that." 

The dawn sun was stippling the clouds with pinks, while the blue of the sky in the west horizon of the valley was lightening gradually. 

"This is a beautiful place to have grown up," Letho said. 

"Does beauty matter when you have a life like ours?" Eskel said, unable to hide a tinge of bitterness at the memories of his childhood in the Blue Mountains. 

"Beauty especially matters then." The way Letho's face turned toward him gave his short reply a depth of meaning, and Eskel felt the scars on his face itch. He didn't know what to say. 

"I never mistake beauty for fragility, though," Letho eventually continued. "Delicacy isn't my style. I choose a sword for its edge and forging, not the glitter of its hilt." 

Eskel had to stop moving, undone by the compliment. The Viper continued a few places then turned back, allowing Eskel space to breathe and think. 

Eskel let his eyes take the measure of the man, contrasting his foreboding appearance to his utterly surprising skill with words. Letho let him, his manner as patient and implacable as a mountain. 

"I haven't yet seen you fight," Eskel said, finally gathering himself. "The nekkers shouldn't be too much further." 

The nekkers were clustered on the bank of the lake. He let Letho take the lead in their ambush; the Viper was masterful with his weapon. He had a brutality and physicality that he wielded with split-second strategic planning. His blade never fell too soon or missed a thrust. The man preferred to stay still and would even risk a bite or scratch to have his prey at the correct distance to make his deathly move. Most of his kills fell from a single fatal wound. 

When the monsters' bodies lay scattered in the reeds, Letho turned to flash a quick smile at Eskel. "You made me do all the work." 

"I would have stepped in if you had any trouble," Eskel said. 

"Would you? You seemed to be busy thinking about something else," the man teased. He wiped his blade before sheathing it. 

"Let's head this way," Eskel said, with a tilt of his head. Letho silently followed, walking behind Eskel close enough that his senses lit up with his proximity at his vulnerable back. 

The other Witcher knew exactly what he was doing. It was exciting to be playing this game with someone with matching skill. 

Eskel led him to an ancient crumbling wall, a corner that was the only remnant of a destroyed building that had been eaten up by ivy and time. 

"Is this where you take all your first dates?" 

Eskel unbuckled his harness and set his blades down to lean against the stones. He finally turned to get his first look at Letho since the waterfront. "No one's ever gotten this far on a first date," Eskel played along. "I don't even know what to do next." 

The man held his gaze as he stripped off his gloves, dropped them in the grass, then set his weapons on top more carefully. He then opened the front of his vest and shrugged it off. Eskel reached for his own armor's fastenings, but the giant stilled him with a raised hand. 

"Do you mind if we do this slowly? Most people look at me and think I like it quick, but-" he quieted at Eskel's smile, sounding like the sight of it literally had stolen his breath. 

"Would you like to undress me?" Eskel offered. 

Letho stepped closer hesitantly, like he wasn't sure that he heard what the wolf had said. His hand reached out but paused before actually touching. Eskel took it and guided it to his scarred cheek. "You can touch, it's fine." Letho's palm was rough but warm, and seemed to cup the entire half of his face. 

"You're lovely," the big man whispered. 

With something in his chest clenching, Eskel could only gently correct him. "I'm an old Witcher. There's nothing lovely about me." 

Letho's counterargument was silent as he put his other hand on Eskel's face and tipped his chin up so he could kiss him. Eskel moved his hands to grip the man's enormous shoulders and held on as the Viper used his lips to bring down all of Eskel's metaphorical defenses. Letho was unpracticed but gentle, making Eskel feel like something worthy of being treasured. 

"See?" Letho said quietly when their lips parted. "Lovely."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if everything is OOC. My main rule of thumb is "if I can hear the voice of the character say it, then it's fine." While I feel like I can't nail down Eskel's motivations, I like to consider Letho the Riddick of The Witcher world: slow to fight, quick with his kills, few with his words, and secretly searching for a home and family. I may be romanticizing his character a lot, though. ;)


End file.
